Friday, 8 December 2006

The Year in Question

I used to do this several years ago when I was a member of an APA (a sort of paper-based snail-mail blogosphere with a membership of around 30). I thought it was time to resurrect the practice. Below are my choices for the best five books I read during 2006, the best five films I watched during the year, and the best five albums I purchased. Oh, and just to balance things out, there's also the three worst books I read in 2006.

Top 5 BooksThe Tourmaline, Paul Park (2006, Tor) - the second book in the fantasy trilogy which began with A Princess of Roumania. Miranda has been transported to an alternate world in which magic works, the Balance of Power remains much as it did in the opening decades of the Twentieth Century, and Roumania has an empire. She discovers that the real world (our world) existed only in a book, created by her aunt and in which she hid Miranda from Roumania's enemies. Fine prose, excellent characterisation (the villainess, Baroness Ceaucescu, is particularly good), and an inventive setting.

The Balkan Trilogy, Olivia Manning (1960-1965, Penguin)- a young British couple are living in Bucharest as World War II breaks out, and are forced to flee to Greece. This trilogy is apparently quite autobiographical. Finely written, and an excellent evocation its time and setting. It was made into a television series. I plan to buy the DVD.

Europeana, Patrik Ouřednik (2001, Dalkey Archive) - a somewhat sideways look at the history of Europe during the Twentieth Century. How can you not love a book which has the opening line, "The Americans who fell in Normandy in 1944 were tall men measuring 173 centimeters on average, and if they were laid head to foot they would measure 38 kilometers." Poetic, informative, and just a little bit strange.

Top 5 FilmsSyriana, dir. Stephen Gaghan (2005) - having lived out in the Middle East, parts of this film rang horribly true. Perhaps the plot was a little confusing in places, but it was gripping entertainment nonetheless.

Serenity, dir. Joss Whedon (2005) - so Serenity's universe is badly-designed and populated with used furniture and hoary clichés, but Whedon's witty dialogue, and a likeable cast, make up for its shortcomings. Perhaps the television series would have been great if it had been allowed to continue. We'll never know. This is all we've got.

Batman Begins, dir. Christopher Nolan (2005) - sigh. Another reinvention of Batman. Hang on, this one is actually good. Batman never really worked for me - he doesn't live in a superhero world... which makes him something of an anachronism in his setting. But Nolan manages to make the whole thing eminently plausible, helped by a good performance from Christian Bale in the title role.

Crime and Punishment, dir. Aki Kaurismäki (1983) - Kaurismäki's films can be a bit hit and miss (Juha, anyone?), but there's something about the po-faced way his cast play their parts that adds a layer of appealing strangeness to his oeuvre. This one is a little more serious than most, which may be why I liked it so much.

Top 5 AlbumsPitch Black Progress, Scar Symmetry (2006) - Scar Symmetry play a mixture of power metal and death metal. And Christian Älvestam has a fine set of pipes. On first listen, I didn't like this as much as their debut of last year, Symmetric in Design, but it definitely grew on me. I think I now prefer it.

Worlds Beyond the Veil, Mithras (2004) - I missed the hype when this album was released, and only came to the band this year. But the bizarre mix of ambient music and technical death metal works really well. I'm looking forward to the new album next year.

The Intrigue of Perception, Hypnos 69 (2005) - this Belgian band apparently play "space rock". Whatever that might be. It sounds like ambient Pink-Floyd-esque rock with easy listening thrown into the mix. It works... in a relaxing sort of way.

1 comment:

Maybe it has something to do with the pacing of the book in which she figures so prominently, a portent of things to come in the mass of paper in your right hand as you read that line, a story that seems to drag on and drag on and drag on...and never quite manage to impress?